Valve controlling means



May 16, 1933. E. a. WSLLEAME VALVE CONTROLLING MEANS Filed March 6, 1931 5 Sheets-Sheet l gwvantoz I, Z f/mer' E. /V/'///c7/72/ E. R. WILLIAMS VALVE CONTROLLING MEANS May 16, 1933.

Filed March 6, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 gwuemtoc May 16, 1933. s. R. WILLIAMS VALVE CONTROLLING MEANS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 6, 1931 5 Z 9 5 7 f z w 5 Z 8 w 6 MW 5 4 4 4 W z @F Z O 7 w II a an 4 a s 2 w v 6 w W n 4, m

W Z e M m actozmq Patented- May 16, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELMER R. WILLIAMS, OF TULSA, OKLAHOMA, ASSIGNOR TO NATIONAL TANK COMPANY OF TULSA, OKLAHOMA, A CORPORATION OF OKLAHOMA VALVE CONTROLLING MEANS Application filed March 6,

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in valve controlling means.

One object'of the invention is to provide means for actuating and controlling the valve or valves of a container by utilizing the weight or gravity of the liquid within the container.

A particular object of the invention is to provide a bucket or other receptacle within the container connected with the valves in such a manner as to actuate the same when the bucket is displaced by the weight of the liquid acting u on said bucket.

A further ob]ect of the invention is to provide counterweights connected with the valve operating means and the bucket so as to hold the valves in predetermined positions until such weights are overcome by the Weight of the liquid acting upon the bucket.

Another object of the invention is to so arrange the inlet end of the liquid outlet pipe with respect to the bucket that it will be constantly immersed, thus preventing gaseous fluids from entering said liquid outlet pipe.

Still another object of the invention is to provide improved means for maintaining a liquid level in a container and also for controlling a gaseous fluid outlet valve if desired, together with means for equalizing the gaseous pressure above the fluid and below the bucket.

A construction designed to carry out the invention will be hereinafter described together with other features of the invention.

The invention will be more readily understood from a reading of the following specification and by reference to the accompanying drawings in which an example of the invention is shown, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a partial elevation of a container equipped with valve controlling means constructed in accordance with the invention a portion of such means being shown in full lines and another portion in dotted lines,

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view of the parts shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is anelevation similar to Figure 1 showing another form of structure,

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view of the parts shown in Figure 3,

1931. Serial No. 520,691.

tom 12. A gas discharge pipe 11 extends upwardly in the upper part of the tank and has a lateral branch 13 extending through the side wall. A gas outlet valve casing 14 is connected to the pipe 13 and a pipe 15 extends from the casing. The gas valve is of the usual construction common in this art and forms noparticular part of the invention. It is shown as a double valve having therein a bonnet 16 carrying the valve seats for the valves 17 which are suspended in the usual manner from the crank 18, as is shown in Figure 2.

The crank is fastened on a rock shaft 19 extending through a packing box 20, as is shown in Figure 1. On the outer end of the shaft is fastened a collar 21 which has a lever 22 adjustably secured therein. A link 23 is suspended from the end of the lever 22 to which it is pivoted.

An oil discharge pipe 24 extends through the side wall of the tank. The outer end of the pipe 24 isfastened into the side of a bottom-discharge valve casing 26. The casing 26 has a bonnet 27 therein connected with the pipe 24 and having valve seats for valves 28. A discharge pipe 29 leads from the bottom of the casing. The valves 28 are suspended from the end of a crank 30 fastened on the end of a rock shaft 31 within the easing. The shaft extends through a stufling box 32 and has a collar 33 fastened thereon in the usual manner. The collar receives a lever 34 from the outer end of which counter weights 35 are suspended. These weights act to close the liquid valves 28. The valves 17 and 28 are of the unbalanced type which are in common and wide use on separators used in the oil fields and are well-known in the art. The upper valve member 17 and the lower valve member 28 are made sufliciently larger in diameter than their correlated valve members to unbalance the valve when subjected to pressure from within the bonnet. This difference may be comparatively slight and could not be accurately indicated in the drawings, and as such valves are so common and so well-known to those skilled in the art, it is deemed unnecessary to illustrate the difference in diameter.

A flanged collar 36 is provided on the side of the tank between the valve casin s. A bonnet 37 is fastened to the collar. A rock shaft 38 journaled in the bonnet extends through a stuffing box 39 on the side thereof. A collar 40 is fastened on the outer end of the shaft 38 and has a lever 41 fastened therein near one end. To the short end of the lever the lower end of the link 23 is pivoted; while to the long end of said lever, the upper end of a link 42 is pivoted. The lower end of the link 42 is pivoted to the lever 34 inwardly of the weights 35.

It will be seen that by rocking the shaft 38 (Figure 2) in a clockwise direction, the long arm of the lever 41 will be elevated and the short arm lowered and consequently the link 42 will be lifted and the link 23 lowered. The link 42 when lifted will lift the lever 34 and thus open the oil valves 28; while the link 23 will pull the lever 22 downwardly and thus start to close the gas valves. It will be noted that when the oil valves 28 are fully closed the gas valves 17 are wide open, and by reason of the connections to the long and short arms of the lever 41, considerable opening movement of the oil valves would be had with very little closing movement of the gas valves. The oil valves would have to be opened to their limit before the gas valves would be entirely closed.

' For operating the valves a lever 43 pivoted at 44 in the collar 36 has a crank arm 45 connected by a link 46 with a crank arm 47 pivoted in the bonnet 37. It will be obvious that upon swinging the lever 43, its crank 45 will swing the arm 47, thus rocking the shaft 38. By adjusting the link 46 on the arms, the throw of the crank arm 47 may be varied.

In the lower part of the tank 10 I mount a cylindrical upright guard casing 48 suitably supported on legs 49 secured to the bottom 12 of the tank. Within this casing is a bucket 50 having its upright cylindrical wall telescoping into an annular space 51 formed between an integral overhanging flange 52 andthe wall of the casing. The bucket is supported by a bail 53 straddling the oil discharge pipe 24 and pivoted to the inner side of the bottom of said bucket. The upper end of the bail is pivoted to the inner end of the lever 43 by means of a shank 54. The flange 52 is sufficiently deep to provide a free guide for the bucket which telescopes therearound, whereby said bucket has a snug sliding fit and may be raised and lowered.

When the oil valves are closed, as is shown in Figure 2, the bucket 50 is elevated and its bottom is just under the lower end of a depending pipe 25 forming an extension of the pipe 24. The guard casing 48 has a bottom 48 and a gas pipe 55 extending from the top portion of the tank is connected to said bottom. A cleanout pipe 56 extends from the bottom of the casing through the Wall of the tank and has a gate 57 on its outer end. An influent containing oil and gas, or any other liquid and fluid (the latter not being a liquid), is introduced into the tank in any suitable way. The gas will rise and escape through the pipes 11 and 13, while the oil will accumulate in the bottom of the tank. Vhen the level of the oil rises above the guard 48, said oil will overflow into the bucket 50 and when sufiicient oil has accumulated in the bucket to give weight enough to overcome the counterbalancing weights 45 and the various links and levers, said bucket will move downwardly in the guard.

This movement will operate the lever 43 and the rock shaft 38, whereby the oil outlet valves 28 will be opened. The discharge from the pipe 29 being lower than the end of the pipe 25, the oil will discharge through the pipes 24 and 25 when said valves are opened. It is pointed out that the oil may rise to a height several inches above the guard 48 before sufficient weight is had in the bucket to displace it and open the oil valves. This is a matter of adjustment and is subject to variation.

It is important that the parts be so adjusted that the bucket 50 will not start its downward movement until said bucket is well filled with oil, so that when the bucket does move downwardly the lower end of the pipe 25 will not be uncovered and permit gas to enter said pipe in case there should be excess of gas in the tank. The gas pipe 55 bypasses gas from the top of the tank above the oil to the casing 48 below the bucket, thus equalizing the gas pressure above and below the moving body of oil carried by said bucket. It is essential that the oil does not overflow the bucket 50 intothe guard 48 and its parts are so arranged that the bucket will trip and the oil will be discharged before it overflows. The guard is imperforate and oil must not enter this guard.

With the parts properly adjusted, the oil valves will be open whenever oil reaches a predetermined height in the bucket, but the gas valve 17 can thus be automatically held in such a position as to maintain substantially a fixed gas pressure within the tank. It will be seen that as the oil level recedes, the gas valves 17 would be gradually closed and this would take care of variance in areas so as to maintain the pressure within the tank. The device is very sensitive and is entirely automatic in its operation.

It is obvious that the same principle may be worked out in other structures and in Figures '3 and 4, I have shown a modified construction for carrying out the invention. In this form the parts are substantially the, same, except that the false bottom 12 is elevated to a higher point than the bottom 12 and the casing 48 with its flange 52 has its extreme upper end welded or otherwise fas tened in the bottom flush therewith, the legs 49 being omitted. The bucket 50 is employed and the bail 53 is provided with an elongated shank 54' to compensate for the lowering of the parts. The operation is somewhat the same except that no oil is accumulated in the bottom .of the tank before entering the bucket, but runs into the bucket before it accumulates in the tank. By means of counterbalance weights and leverage, an oil level could be built up to a desired point before sulficient weight was exerted on the bucket to displace it downwardly.

In Figures 5 and 6 still another modification of structure is shown. In this arrangement a lever is fastened in the collar 21 of the gas valve casing 14. The rock shaft 19 is set at right angles to the position shown in Figure 2 in order that the lever 60 may "swing transversely of the valve casing. On

one end of the lever 60 counterbalancing weights 61 are suspended, while the other end of the lever engages in a vertical loop 62 on the upper endof a pitman rod 63. The pitman rod has an eye 64 through which the arm 65- extends. The arm 65 is secured in the collar 40of the rock shaft 38 and has counterbalancing' weights 66 hanging from its outer end."

The lower end of the pitman 63 is pivoted to a lever 67 secured in the collar 33 of the oil valve casing 26. The lever 43 within the tank has a pivoted link 68 suspended therefrom and pivoted in the bottom of a bucket 69 mounted in a guard casing 70 having an inner flange 71 and space 72 similar to the parts 51 and 52. Parts which are the same as in the other figures have not been described in connection with Figures 5 and 6.

The casing 70 is supported on legs 73. An oil discharge pipe 24 has an extension 25 extending into the bucket while the valve casing 26 is connectedwith the pipe 24 by a pipe conductor 74. The operation is somewhat the .same so'fa'r' as the opening andclosing of the oil valves 28 is concerned. The

weights 66 willoperate similar to the weight 35, it being noted that in Figure 6 the bucket is lowered and theoil valves are open, while the gas valves17 are closed.

Owing to the loop 62, it is obvious that the rod 63 may beelevated to open the valves 28 to a certain point without swinging the lever 60. The weights 61 are employed to hold the valves 17 partially closed against the pressure of the gas flowing into the casing 14 from the pipes 11 and 13. If it were not for these weights the gas pressure would open the valves wide and no back-pressure would be held in the tank. The loop 62 permits a reasonable opening and closing of the oil valves 28 without disturbing the gas valves, but when the oil reaches a high level in the tank and its weight fully depresses the bucket 69,the pitman 63 will then move far enough to swing the lever 60 and fully close the valves 17, thereby preventing an excess of oil overflowing into the pipe 11 and alsov building up the gas pressure in the tank for assisting in driving out the oil.

While the terms oil and gas have been specific to a gas or a fluid which is not liquid and the term liquid is used to designate a fluid such as oil, water, or the like.

Various changes in the size and shape of the different parts, as well as modifications and alterations, may be made within the scope of the appended claims.

Having illustrated and described preferred forms of the invention, what I claim, is:

1. In a valve controlling device, a container having an inlet, a gaseous fluid discharge valve connected with said container, a liquid discharge valve connected with said container, operating means connected with the liquid valve, a bucket for receiving liquid discharged into the container and located below the inlet thereof, a connection betweenthe operating means and the bucket, a guard having an open top and a closed bottom and receiving said bucket, the bucket having a close sliding fit in the guard, whereby gases may be entrapped in said guard below said bucket, and means for admitting gaseous fluid to the guard below the bucket for equalizing the fluid pressure above the liquid and below the bucket. 2, In a valve controlling device, a container having an inlet, a gaseous fluid discharge valve connected with said container, aliqu d discharge valve connected with said container, operating means connected with both the valves, a bucket for receiving liquid discharged into the container and located below the inlet thereof, a connection between the operating means and the bucket, a guard having an open top and a closed bottom and receiving said bucket, the bucket having a close sliding fit in the guard, whereby gases may be entrapped in said guard below said bucket, and means for admitting gaseous fluid to the guard below the bucket for equalizing the fluid pressure above the liquid and below the bucket.

3. In a valve controlling device, a container having an inlet, a gaseous fluid discharge valve connected with said container, a liquid discharge valve connected with said container, operating means connected with the liquid valve, a bucket for receiving liquid discharged into the container and located below the inlet-thereof, a connection between the operating means and the bucket, a guard having an open top and a closed bottom and receiving said bucket, the bucket having a close sliding fit in the guard, whereby gases may be entrapped in said guard below said bucket, means for admitting gaseous fluid to the guard below the bucket for equalizing the fluid pressure above the liquid and below the bucket, a discharge conductor leading from the bucket to the liquid outlet valve, and means for returning the bucket when the liquid has been discharged.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

' ELMER R. WILLIAMS. 

